IP means Internet Protocol.
What is Protocol? Simply it is a set of rules, which must be followed for completing any process successfully.
So if you want to send some information out from your device to another device over the network, whether it is public internet or Private Network, then there are some rules defined, a communication model has been developed to establishing the communication channel between devices. If a device wants to establish communication with another device then it must follow all the rules defined in IP Suit.
You might hear of the TCP/IP model & OSI model. Where OSI provides a larger picture of governing the communication process, provide interoperability between different network hardware. On the other hand, TCP/IP provides a consolidated or a summary view of the OSI model but it is mainly focused on establishing the Connection to devices. mainly work on Layer 3 with the conjunction of TCP and UDP, Layer 4 Protocols. we will talk about OSI and TCP/IP in another article hereon we are just focused to understand Internet Protocols. The below image provides an overview of both the model of Internet Protocol.
these are the hierarchical steps that must be followed if a device wants to communicate well over the network. In the Internet Protocol suite, there are several other rules defined on a per-layer basis, for example Application layer protocols, Transport layer protocols like TCP & UDP, Network layer Protocol related to IP Addressing, etc.